This is the eighth year that Musicweb International
has asked its reviewing team to nominate their recordings (or
music books) of the year. Reviewers are not restricted to discs
they had reviewed, but the choices must have been reviewed on
MWI in the last 12 months (December 09-November 10).

139 selections have come in from 26 members of the team, the choices
as always reflecting a remarkable diversity of music: all periods
and style of music are well represented. Again demonstrating the
health of the classical music industry when many are saying the
opposite, is the observation that the selections come from 63
different labels.

As for the last two years, Naxos is Label of the Year,
with 13 nominations, with the majors having a better year, EMI
second with 11 and DG third with 8.

No Composer of the Year as there wasn't one with a dominant
number of nominations, so I have chosen instead to select an Artist
of the Year - Sir Charles Mackerras - with four nominations
in total (3 for the Mozart, and another for Dvorak tone poems
on Supraphon) and in honour of his passing.

Arthur Butterworth has long been a friend of MusicWeb International.
I was instrumental in promoting a performance of his fourth
symphony for his 75th birthday review. I was absolutely delighted
when Dutton recorded this last year coupled with the First
symphony and the viola concerto (review).
Now from Dutton we have the fifth symphony in another splendid
recording again with Arthur Butterworth conducting. This is
music of an old school romantic and the good news is that
he recently completed his sixth symphony in his 86th year!
Len Mullenger

The CD of the Year must for me represent a special and enthralling
experience. It needs to be up there with the spine-tingling
discoveries of your first experiences in classical music.
Astonishment should play its part. For this reason and after
a great deal of deliberation, given the breadth of choice,
I have this year selected Honegger’s 1930 operetta Les
Aventures du Roi Pausole on Brilliant Classics and at bargain
price. It’s all here in a series of compact vignettes
all separately tracked: amorous entanglements, innocence,
allure and seduction – all perfectly polished, chuckling
and superbly finessed. Totally captivating.

Choosing between the pair of triply-nominated
recordings wasn't easy, particularly when I had picked the
Mackerras in my selections. However, I remained impartial
and non-sentimental, and went for Habanera, because
of the extra weight two selections of another Garanca recording
- Carmen.

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